The other day, Father Michael Phleger put on a minstrel show at Barack Obama's church. He might as well have donned blackface, and sang, "Mammy."
Instead of being offended, the congregation of Trinity United applauded the man.
Here is a video clip.
From Victor Davis Hanson:
The problem with Father Pfleger's racist and sexist rant about Hillary's tears and whiteness was not that he once had some tenuous relationship with Barack Obama and therefore is the candidate's eternal responsibility. Obama obviously is not responsible for all the dubious people that he has come across in the world of Chicago activism.
But there is a problem, and it really is far larger than Father Pfleger— namely the immediate reaction to the father's sick mimicry from both the congregation and the new pastor of Trinity.
The reception to Pfleger seemed enthusiastic, at least as it appeared on the video "snippet", and indeed after that racist harangue the pastor at Trinity praised Pfleger in the manner he had introduced him.
After the Wright National Press Club meltdown, Obama I think has made the case that Trinity and Wright were distinguishable; and thus while he could finally cut loose the latter, he could still in good conscious stay with the former.
But now? It seems the problem is not Wright per se, but the church itself and its generic pastors that are starting to voice, or at least tolerate, habitually racist themes. After the pastor's and congregation's response to the latest creepy sermon, it is surely past time for Obama now to gracefully leave the congregation that either cannot or will not distance itself from hate speech.
Surely the possible next president of the United States cannot formally belong to a church where Wright and Pfleger have habitually spread their venom, and where both were praised by Wright's successor and current pastor. Otherwise, we wouldn't be wrong to suspect that Wright did not create Trinity, but rather Trinity created Wright.
If the Obamas have already formally quit the Trinity Church disregard the above.
Yeah, I don't think they have. And, don't look for Trinity United to change its ways.
In fact, here's the next preacher scheduled for Trinity United this Sunday.
What is the difference between that, and Father Pfleger? The big difference is that Father Pfleger has sucked a gullible audience of black people into believing he is not parodying them. He probably does believe the things he is saying, or feels he needs to believe them. Nevertheless, his speech is a parody of black mannerisms, and of the stupidest of Black Nationalist tropes about white culture.
From Wikipedia:
Blackface in the narrow sense is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the United States, used to take on the appearance of certain archetypes of American racism. Blackface in the broader sense includes similarly stereotyped performances even when they do not involve blackface makeup.
Stogie has more thoughts on Father Pfleger's Blackface performance.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Pallywood Agitprop: More On France2's Al-Dura Hoax
Karsenty Won! - That is very good news, in fact it is a reason for freedom loving people to celebrate and a symbolic victory to our ethical rights and to be presented with facts instead of
staged propaganda to which Joseph Göebbles would be jealous - The mainstream media's credibilty in reporting from the Middle East is virtually more or less nil - The same media which is silent and ignores this Al-Dura Hoax to which they were all screaming to the public with an almost hysteria and shaped the Hoax into an iconic symbol - A lie!
This lie is being repeated again and again - One can only conclude that the rest of the mainstream medias are in compliance through silence or simply fear that if they do tell the story their will be riots, that is anyone's guess - The silence however speaks for itself.
I recommend to read Nidra Poller on the France2 Hoax.
It is not over - The public has been taken for fools through manipulation, there have been death and suffering as a result of France2's Hoax, Endelin still run his weekly Pallywood propaganda on France2.
This is an extract from a mail sent by Karsenty:
"The most serious damage to our cause was done by certain members of the American Jewish Committee, notably the AJCommittee's representative in Paris, Valérie Hoffenberg, who for the past three and a half years has worked actively against our efforts to reveal the truth. She functioned as the gate-keeper at the Elysee Palace (the French White House), discouraging serious discussion of the al Dura hoax among decision makers, and blocking access to me and others who were capable of providing evidence of the hoax. Her role was crucial and destructive."
"Within the past year, the Elysee Palace received many letters and faxes in support of our position on the al Dura hoax. Almost everyone in the government was aware of the case and of the support my position was receiving. However, it was assumed, at the Elysee, that my position did not have the support of American Jewish organizations--that the American Jewish community, in fact, supported France 2's version of the story. This impression was created by Valerie Hoffenberg who actually advised French politicians to "keep their hands off the case." Hoffenberg was working behind the scenes to discredit me and to assist France 2 in covering up its lie."
"On September 2007, the AJCommittee leadership realized that it was on the wrong side of the issue--protecting the worst anti-Semitic blood libel of modern times. They then chose to mask the behaviour of their Paris representative by issuing a congratulatory press release that contradicted their actual position. The press release was designated for an American and English speaking audience. When its Paris representative was asked to issue a public statement about the case in French , she refused. Even after our recent, major victory this May, she has steadfastly refused to comment in French: she doesn’t want to jeopardize her relationship with the French establishment." "Over the past year, in an effort to prevent the AJCommittee from undermining our efforts, I personally alerted AJCommittee President David Harris several times. I also met with people from his organization to inform them of the problem. He has also been contacted by numerous donors demanding that he instruct Valerie Hoffenberg to withdraw her opposition to my efforts in the case. To no avail."
"Nicolas Sarkozy has got the power on the state-owned TV channel to admit that the al Dura news report was a fraud and issue a public apology for broadcasting a staged "killing" and, therefore, an apology for being the party to a colossal historical hoax."
France 2 is still denying the truth and French media, if and when they even mention the case, are still covering France 2's lies.
France 2 has been lying about the al Dura affair for seven and a half years.
They are still lying today.
From: Wall Street Journal
It's hard to exaggerate the significance of Mohammed al-Durra, the 12-year-old Palestinian boy allegedly killed by Israeli bullets on Sept. 30, 2000. The iconic image of the terrified child crouching behind his father helped sway world opinion against the Jewish state and fueled the last Intifada.
junction. Two months before, Yasser Arafat had walked out of the Camp David peace talks. Two days before, Ariel Sharon had visited Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The second Intifada was brewing. The French network's cameraman, Mr. Abu Rahma, filmed the skirmishes and got the footage to the France 2 bureau in Israel. Mr. Enderlin edited the film and, relying only on his cameraman's account, provided the voice-over for the report. He suggested Israeli soldiers killed the boy. He didn't say he wasn't there.
Along with the Temple Mount incident, the al-Durra shooting was the seminal event behind the second Intifada. Israel apologized. But nagging doubts soon emerged, as Nidra Poller recounts here. An Israeli military probe found that its soldiers couldn't have shot the father and son, given where the two were crouching.
Others including Mr. Karsenty asked, among various questions, Why the lack of any blood on the boy or his father? Or why did France 2 claim to have 27 minutes of footage but refuse to show any but the 57 seconds on its original broadcast? Mr. Enderlin said, "I cut the images of the child's agony, they were unbearable."
Under pressure from media watchdogs, and after years of stonewalling, France 2 eventually
shared the additional film. It turns out that no footage of the child's alleged death throes seems to exist. The extra material shows what appears to be staged scenes of gun battles before the al-Durra killing. For a sample, check out www.seconddraft.org, a site run by Richard Landes, a Boston University professor and one of Mr. Karsenty's witnesses.
Judge Trébucq said that Mr. Karsenty "observed inexplicable inconsistencies and contradictions in the explanations by Charles Enderlin."
We don't know exactly what happened to Mohammed al-Durra. Perhaps we never will. But the Paris court ruling shows that France 2 wasn't completely open about what it knew about that day. It suggests the Israelis may not have been to blame. It makes it plausible to consider -- without being dismissed as an unhinged conspiracy theorist -- the possibility that the al-Durra story was a hoax.
To this day, Islamic militants use the al-Durra case to incite violence and hatred against Israel. They are well aware of the power of images. Mr. Karsenty is, too, which is why he and others have tried to hold France 2 accountable for its reporting.
staged propaganda to which Joseph Göebbles would be jealous - The mainstream media's credibilty in reporting from the Middle East is virtually more or less nil - The same media which is silent and ignores this Al-Dura Hoax to which they were all screaming to the public with an almost hysteria and shaped the Hoax into an iconic symbol - A lie!This lie is being repeated again and again - One can only conclude that the rest of the mainstream medias are in compliance through silence or simply fear that if they do tell the story their will be riots, that is anyone's guess - The silence however speaks for itself.
I recommend to read Nidra Poller on the France2 Hoax.
It is not over - The public has been taken for fools through manipulation, there have been death and suffering as a result of France2's Hoax, Endelin still run his weekly Pallywood propaganda on France2.
This is an extract from a mail sent by Karsenty:
"The most serious damage to our cause was done by certain members of the American Jewish Committee, notably the AJCommittee's representative in Paris, Valérie Hoffenberg, who for the past three and a half years has worked actively against our efforts to reveal the truth. She functioned as the gate-keeper at the Elysee Palace (the French White House), discouraging serious discussion of the al Dura hoax among decision makers, and blocking access to me and others who were capable of providing evidence of the hoax. Her role was crucial and destructive."
"Within the past year, the Elysee Palace received many letters and faxes in support of our position on the al Dura hoax. Almost everyone in the government was aware of the case and of the support my position was receiving. However, it was assumed, at the Elysee, that my position did not have the support of American Jewish organizations--that the American Jewish community, in fact, supported France 2's version of the story. This impression was created by Valerie Hoffenberg who actually advised French politicians to "keep their hands off the case." Hoffenberg was working behind the scenes to discredit me and to assist France 2 in covering up its lie."
"On September 2007, the AJCommittee leadership realized that it was on the wrong side of the issue--protecting the worst anti-Semitic blood libel of modern times. They then chose to mask the behaviour of their Paris representative by issuing a congratulatory press release that contradicted their actual position. The press release was designated for an American and English speaking audience. When its Paris representative was asked to issue a public statement about the case in French , she refused. Even after our recent, major victory this May, she has steadfastly refused to comment in French: she doesn’t want to jeopardize her relationship with the French establishment." "Over the past year, in an effort to prevent the AJCommittee from undermining our efforts, I personally alerted AJCommittee President David Harris several times. I also met with people from his organization to inform them of the problem. He has also been contacted by numerous donors demanding that he instruct Valerie Hoffenberg to withdraw her opposition to my efforts in the case. To no avail."
"Nicolas Sarkozy has got the power on the state-owned TV channel to admit that the al Dura news report was a fraud and issue a public apology for broadcasting a staged "killing" and, therefore, an apology for being the party to a colossal historical hoax."
France 2 is still denying the truth and French media, if and when they even mention the case, are still covering France 2's lies.
France 2 has been lying about the al Dura affair for seven and a half years.
They are still lying today.
From: Wall Street Journal
It's hard to exaggerate the significance of Mohammed al-Durra, the 12-year-old Palestinian boy allegedly killed by Israeli bullets on Sept. 30, 2000. The iconic image of the terrified child crouching behind his father helped sway world opinion against the Jewish state and fueled the last Intifada.
It's equally hard, then, to exaggerate the significance of last week's French court ruling that called the story into doubt. Not just whether the Israeli military shot the boy, but whether the whole incident may have been staged for propaganda purposes. If so, it would be one of the most harmful put-up jobs in media history.
You probably didn't hear this news. International media lapped up the televised report of al-Durra's shooting on France's main state-owned network, France 2. Barely a peep was heard, however, when the Paris Court of Appeal ruled in a suit brought by the network against the founder of a media watchdog group. The judge's verdict, released Thursday, said that Philippe Karsenty was within his rights to call the France 2
report a "hoax," overturning a 2006 decision that found him guilty of defaming the network and its Mideast correspondent, Charles Enderlin. France 2 has appealed to the country's highest court.
Judge Laurence Trébucq did more than assert Mr. Karsenty's right to free speech. In overturning a lower court's ruling, she said the issues he raised about the original France 2 report were legitimate. While Mr. Karsenty couldn't provide absolute proof of his claims, the court ruled that he marshalled a "coherent mass of evidence" and "exercised in good faith his right to free criticism." The court also found that Talal Abu Rahma, the Palestinian cameraman for France 2 who was the only journalist to capture the scene and the network's crown witness in this case, can't be considered "perfectly credible."The ruling at the very least opens the way for honest discussion of the al-Durra case, and coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general. French media could stand some self-examination. The same holds for journalists elsewhere.
On that Saturday in 2000, Palestinians faced off against Israeli troops at Gaza's Netzarim
junction. Two months before, Yasser Arafat had walked out of the Camp David peace talks. Two days before, Ariel Sharon had visited Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The second Intifada was brewing. The French network's cameraman, Mr. Abu Rahma, filmed the skirmishes and got the footage to the France 2 bureau in Israel. Mr. Enderlin edited the film and, relying only on his cameraman's account, provided the voice-over for the report. He suggested Israeli soldiers killed the boy. He didn't say he wasn't there.Along with the Temple Mount incident, the al-Durra shooting was the seminal event behind the second Intifada. Israel apologized. But nagging doubts soon emerged, as Nidra Poller recounts here. An Israeli military probe found that its soldiers couldn't have shot the father and son, given where the two were crouching.
Others including Mr. Karsenty asked, among various questions, Why the lack of any blood on the boy or his father? Or why did France 2 claim to have 27 minutes of footage but refuse to show any but the 57 seconds on its original broadcast? Mr. Enderlin said, "I cut the images of the child's agony, they were unbearable."
Under pressure from media watchdogs, and after years of stonewalling, France 2 eventually
shared the additional film. It turns out that no footage of the child's alleged death throes seems to exist. The extra material shows what appears to be staged scenes of gun battles before the al-Durra killing. For a sample, check out www.seconddraft.org, a site run by Richard Landes, a Boston University professor and one of Mr. Karsenty's witnesses.Judge Trébucq said that Mr. Karsenty "observed inexplicable inconsistencies and contradictions in the explanations by Charles Enderlin."
We don't know exactly what happened to Mohammed al-Durra. Perhaps we never will. But the Paris court ruling shows that France 2 wasn't completely open about what it knew about that day. It suggests the Israelis may not have been to blame. It makes it plausible to consider -- without being dismissed as an unhinged conspiracy theorist -- the possibility that the al-Durra story was a hoax.
To this day, Islamic militants use the al-Durra case to incite violence and hatred against Israel. They are well aware of the power of images. Mr. Karsenty is, too, which is why he and others have tried to hold France 2 accountable for its reporting.
Storm Track Infiltration: Islamic Infiltration Right Under Our Noses
With the help of Time Warner Cable, Islam is being broadcast throughout 
The ACLU Advises Moslems
Not a surprise, of course.Excerpt from this article in the LA Times:
May 29, 2008How many jihadomaniacs are hiding behind the ACLU's lawyers?
A report that mosques in Los Angeles and San Diego are under federal surveillance has resurrected fears in the Muslim community about government monitoring and led two civil rights groups Wednesday to call for congressional hearings.
[...]
Corey Saylor, Washington spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the article in the San Diego Union-Tribune "has again raised concerns that our community is being watched."
[...]
ACLU lawyers regularly go to mosques to advise worshipers that they do not have to answer questions from FBI agents about how long they have been in the United States, how often they attend services and what they get out of the sermons...
Crossposted at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS , where Reliapundit comments as follows:
amazing: the aclu actually has an outreach program to teach disobedience and obfuscation to potential enemies.
this is treason.
at the very least, this is like a mob lawyer who advise his mafia clients on how to set up rackets in advance of doing crime.
lawyers are then not representing clients, but part of the criminal enterprise.
lawyers have done time for this, and the aclu should be busted for this.
Closing in on a Crumbling al Qaida
This is from The Week Magazine:The myth of al Qaida is at last starting to fade, said Lebanon’s Daily Star in an editorial. In Iraq, the terror organization has been on the run ever since its Sunni allies turned against it. Its last bastion is in the northern city of Mosul, which has been turned into a ghost town as Iraqi forces close in on the surviving rebels. Al Qaida has also suffered a serious setback in Somalia, where its local leader, Moalim Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed in a U.S. bombing raid on May 1. And it has practically disappeared from Afghanistan, which Osama bin Laden made his base in 1996. Even in the northern province of Nuristan, once an al Qaida stronghold, Arab fighters are seldom encountered. U.S. Army officers say it’s not “even a topic of conversation” anymore. FBI Director Robert Mueller now claims that al Qaida will be destroyed “within years, not decades.”
But one place where the terrorist organization is still entrenched is the mountainous border regions of Pakistan, said India’s The Times. It’s where bin Laden is thought to be hiding, and is the base from which the group has launched various terrorist attacks, including the attempted assassination of Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai. American officials are furious that the new Pakistani government is now negotiating with the regional warlords who are harboring al Qaida, said Hasan-Askari Rizvi in Pakistan’s Daily Times. But it’s the only feasible option. President Pervez Musharraf tried to get the army to root out al Qaida and the Taliban from the region, but the destruction and killing only embittered the locals, driving them into the arms of the militants. Dialogue is essential to identifying the moderates who can be persuaded to opt for peace and stability.
The U.S. has changed its strategy in Pakistan, too, said Syed Saleem Shahzad in the Hong Kong Asia Times. It had poured huge sums of money into supporting the country’s military against the terrorists ($10 billion in seven years) only to find those funds being channeled to conventional forces in the arms race against India. The generals even had the gall to ask for dollars to pay for air defense radar maintenance, even though Islamic militants have no air force. So now the U.S. is training Pakistani special operations teams to go after the terrorists; it hopes to do what it did in the Philippines, where training local troops led to suppression of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.
Rather than focus on Asia and the Middle East, says David Sharrock in Britain’s The Times, we should be worried about what’s going on in North Africa, where al Qaida has had considerable success in promoting its brand through local fundamentalists. It may only have some 200 fighters in the region, but it is well organized and has started using tactics honed in Iraq: suicide attacks and sophisticated bombing techniques. But there’s no need to panic just yet, said Nazim Fethi in the North African news site Magharebia.com. As in Iraq, al Qaida’s brutal tactics are creating a backlash. Its regional leader, Abdelmalek Deroukdel, finds himself increasingly isolated after he ordered suicide attacks against civilians. Another key figure, Algeria’s Mokhtar Belmokhtar, is said to be defecting and could betray the whole local network. Despite its spectacular past successes, al Qaida has of late been looking less and less invincible.
Superior Carbon Neutral Humans Discovered
Truly transcendent satire from Kevin at the Amboy Times:
Hat tip, BBC.
Deep in the thickest forest of the Amazon region of Brazil, scientists have discovered a small commune that is completely carbon neutral.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen" said noted greenologist Dr Kermit Goretree. "They produce no carbon emissions of any kind, their love of the planet is complete. At first we thought they were just hippies, but they were much too clean and the whole village is devoid of volkswagens and lavalamps".
Goretree went on excitedly, "They are totally committed to the earth, we registered the entire village as a 0.000002 on the pollutometer. That's a lower Co2 rating than the flatulence of a typical field mouse. We believe that all their foods are organic, possibly vegan, but there's just not enough evidence to confirm that at this time. They are definitely off grid, as far as we know none of them even has an email address".
The tribe has apparently put a ban on all guns.
"They are probably pacifists. There were no signs of military might. There are no flags on even street names, it's just like they listened to John Lennon's Imagine and really got it, y'know?"
Go here to read the whole thing.
Hat tip, BBC.
Deep in the thickest forest of the Amazon region of Brazil, scientists have discovered a small commune that is completely carbon neutral.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen" said noted greenologist Dr Kermit Goretree. "They produce no carbon emissions of any kind, their love of the planet is complete. At first we thought they were just hippies, but they were much too clean and the whole village is devoid of volkswagens and lavalamps".
Goretree went on excitedly, "They are totally committed to the earth, we registered the entire village as a 0.000002 on the pollutometer. That's a lower Co2 rating than the flatulence of a typical field mouse. We believe that all their foods are organic, possibly vegan, but there's just not enough evidence to confirm that at this time. They are definitely off grid, as far as we know none of them even has an email address".
The tribe has apparently put a ban on all guns.
"They are probably pacifists. There were no signs of military might. There are no flags on even street names, it's just like they listened to John Lennon's Imagine and really got it, y'know?"
Go here to read the whole thing.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Putting Profit above Principle
It has been announced that Tony Blair wants to ’devote his life to faith’. By ‘faith’ I suppose we are to understand ‘interfaith dialogue’, so as to try and ensure that we all live together in harmony.
This is a noble ambition indeed; unfortunately, however, there is one stumbling block: The nature of Islam!
For ‘interfaith dialogue’ to be meaningful, there has to be a readiness by all parties, in this case especially Jews, Christians, and Muslims, to compromise, for without compromise, interfaith dialogue becomes a meaningless exercise.
In Islam we find an implacable faith, an unyielding belief system founded on totally different principles than both Judaism and Christianity.
Christianity is based on love: The love of God, the love for God, the love of humanity. Islam, by contrast, is not a religion based on love; rather, it is based on total submission to Allah, and where there is no total submission to Him, we find the sword used to rein in the people. Indeed, Muhammad himself announced the sword to be an instrument of faith. Who, then, are we to argue with Muhammad’s declaration? How can we put a positive spin on that?
It is interesting to note that there is a maxim used by Muslims which states the following: ‘To convince stubborn unbelievers, there is no argument like the sword.’ [Source: Washington Irving: Mohammed]
For this reason, if for no other, it is difficult to see what Tony Blair hopes to achieve with his devotion to interfaith dialogue. How does he hope to change the nature of the faith of Islam? It is impossible to change nature. Indeed, can we change the nature of anything? And if this is so, then what hope have we of changing the nature of Islam, especially after more than fourteen hundred years?
The only man who could have changed its nature was the Prophet Muhammad himself. But as he is no longer around to make any changes, it is not going to be possible for mere mortals to change anything in that religion. You see, Islam is not a religion like Christianity anyway. Christianity has evolved, and has undergone a reformation. This reformation was made possible partly because Christianity, being based on the Bible, especially the New Testament, is to all but fundamentalist Christians considered to be a book that is inspired by God. The words contained therein are not generally considered to be God’s actual words.
In this respect, Islam is very different. Islam, as we all know, is based on the Qur’an, and that book is not considered be inspired by Allah; rather, Muslims consider the book to comprise the actual words of Allah as dictated to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel in the form of a recitation. In fact, the very meaning of ‘Al Qur’an’ is ‘The Recitation’.
The result of this difference between the holy books has led to two quite different civilizations and cultures. Muslims are very defensive of Islamic culture and civilization in a way that Westerners are not defensive of theirs.
Take our leaders. They are reluctant to face up to the fact that we have a huge problem on our hands with Islam in general, and with the rapid growth of Islam in the West in particular. In this reluctance, they are doing us no favours. On the contrary, they are remiss in their duties as guardians of our way of life, as guardians of our Judeo-Christian civilization.
What, for example, are our leaders doing to protect our values and our way of life? Interfaithing will offer no protection; actually, on the contrary, it will probably lead to compromise – the compromise of Westerners. To me it seems like a cop out. It is a smokescreen to enable the top echelons to put profit above principle.
The jihad which is being waged against the West threatens us all. It is not something we can afford to ignore; yet people are ignoring it, largely in the hope that it will go away. It won’t. If anything, it will get worse.
The jihad has many guises. One of the latest is the economic jihad being waged against capitalism. Only this morning, it was reported that there have been calls for Ireland to introduce Shari’ah-compliant finance as a matter of urgency. As a matter of urgency, no less! Why? So that Muslims living and working in Ireland can live their lives according to their faith, without feeling conflicted by the terms and conditions of living in the ‘evil’ capitalist system.
One can but ask oneself one question here: If living under capitalism is so onerous for these Muslims, then why did they come here to live in the first place?
The leaders of finance houses who are working so hard to introduce Shari’ah-compliant financial services and products seem to be oblivious to the fact that Islamic economics is competing in every respect with capitalism. Isn’t it true to say that the interest rate is the keystone of a capitalist economy? Take that keystone away and the whole system will start to fall apart.
In Islam, riba is frowned upon. But let’s get one thing straight: Riba is generally translated as usury, not as the interest rate per se. There is a world of difference between usury, which is the charging of extortionate rates of interest for loans, and the general interest rate which is not to be equated with such extortion. Yet nobody seems to be making any difference between them. The financiers appear to have been hoodwinked into believing that the interest rate is itself frowned upon in Islamic economics. It must be said that one’s definitions in this matter depend on the Islamic scholars one reads: Some scholars frown upon the interest rate altogether, calling it all usury, whilst others take a more liberal approach and make a distinction between a reasonable rate of interest and an extortionate rate.
Whichever is the case, the fact remains that Islamic economics is not compatible with the long-term interests of a capitalist economy. One can but worry about the tentacles of Islam tightening their grip on Western economies. Lest we forget, the old adage, He who pays the piper calls the tune comes to mind. We need not wait to learn that this is indeed true. We can discern the verity of the adage already when we look around us. Take the power of the petrodollar as a case in point. Its power is profound, and it can be felt around the globe.
It is one reason why our leaders and business people are reluctant to speak out. They are overcome by greed and fear: They are greedy to earn back the petrodollars, and they are fearful that if they speak out they will incur the wrath of the Muslims living in the West, and cut off our oil supplies into the bargain.
You see, they do not have the stomach for any form of confrontation. The sad reality is, however, that the West will not survive this onslaught without a confrontation of some kind or other. It’s just not possible. Muslims are too determined to replace our Judeo-Christian civilization with an Islamic one, too determined to replace capitalism with an Islamic economic system.
But by confrontation, I do not necessarily think that we need to go to war (though that cannot, of course, be ruled out in the long-run). But we do need to protect our own values and our own way of life. Alas, this is not happening. Our leaders are giving in at every turn. Appeasement of Muslims both at home and abroad is the norm of the day. It will do nothing for the West except accelarate the demise of our civilization, and accelerate the demise of capitalism, too.
Can’t the people in power see what they are doing? Are bankers and financiers so greedy that they are willing to bring down the West for their own short-term gain? Do they not realize that they are playing with fire? Do they really believe that capitalism and Islamic economics can co-exist? Can they really be that ignorant?
Personally, I think they are not; rather, I think these people are out to get all they can before the house of cards is brought down. Remember the fall of communism? Capitalism will fall equally easily if we do not pay more attention. It’s hard to believe, I know. But the introduction of Shari’ah-compliant finance and other Shari’ah-compliant products is just the start. It is the introduction of Shari’ah law by the back the door. Today it’s banking; tomorrow it will be Shari’ah enshrined in the laws of the land, enshrined in the constitutions of Western countries. How foolish our leaders, bankers and financiers are!
Before 9/11, it would have been hard to imagine that the West could have been so weak and unwilling to fight for a way of life we have come to expect and love. But it all started going wrong after those attacks, because we were too reluctant to state the case against Islam, clearly and unequivocally. The politicians have busied themselves making excuses for Islam and have deceived the public in so doing; the business people and bankers have busied themselves making money from the countries awash with petrodollars. And in so doing they have chosen to turn a blind eye to the financing, by Saudi Arabia, of the propagation of Wahhabi Islam in the West.
So what exactly is Tony Blair going to achieve with his lifetime spent interfaithing? Is he merely going to sell the West farther down the river? And in any case, what are his qualifications for doing this job? What does he know about Islam? And where has he learnt that which he does know?
One thing is for certain: People like Tony Blair are not going to learn the true nature of Islam by sitting in five star hotels in Bethlehem, talking to fabulously rich Muslims from oil-rich countries. To learn about the true nature of Islam one has to mix and talk with people at the grassroots level. The rich are generally Western-educated, indulge in alcohol, spend enormous amounts of money in casinos, live in the lap of luxury, and generally do not adhere strictly to their faith. They are also generally well-travelled; so they are not representative of the ordinary man in the Arab street. Ergo, little can be learnt from them when it comes to the faith of Islam.
Isn’t it high time that we all started taking stock? Isn’t it high time that we woke up to the reality which confronts us? Isn’t it high time that we started to put principle before profit?
©Mark Alexander
This is a noble ambition indeed; unfortunately, however, there is one stumbling block: The nature of Islam!
For ‘interfaith dialogue’ to be meaningful, there has to be a readiness by all parties, in this case especially Jews, Christians, and Muslims, to compromise, for without compromise, interfaith dialogue becomes a meaningless exercise.
In Islam we find an implacable faith, an unyielding belief system founded on totally different principles than both Judaism and Christianity.
Christianity is based on love: The love of God, the love for God, the love of humanity. Islam, by contrast, is not a religion based on love; rather, it is based on total submission to Allah, and where there is no total submission to Him, we find the sword used to rein in the people. Indeed, Muhammad himself announced the sword to be an instrument of faith. Who, then, are we to argue with Muhammad’s declaration? How can we put a positive spin on that?
It is interesting to note that there is a maxim used by Muslims which states the following: ‘To convince stubborn unbelievers, there is no argument like the sword.’ [Source: Washington Irving: Mohammed]
For this reason, if for no other, it is difficult to see what Tony Blair hopes to achieve with his devotion to interfaith dialogue. How does he hope to change the nature of the faith of Islam? It is impossible to change nature. Indeed, can we change the nature of anything? And if this is so, then what hope have we of changing the nature of Islam, especially after more than fourteen hundred years?
The only man who could have changed its nature was the Prophet Muhammad himself. But as he is no longer around to make any changes, it is not going to be possible for mere mortals to change anything in that religion. You see, Islam is not a religion like Christianity anyway. Christianity has evolved, and has undergone a reformation. This reformation was made possible partly because Christianity, being based on the Bible, especially the New Testament, is to all but fundamentalist Christians considered to be a book that is inspired by God. The words contained therein are not generally considered to be God’s actual words.
In this respect, Islam is very different. Islam, as we all know, is based on the Qur’an, and that book is not considered be inspired by Allah; rather, Muslims consider the book to comprise the actual words of Allah as dictated to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel in the form of a recitation. In fact, the very meaning of ‘Al Qur’an’ is ‘The Recitation’.
The result of this difference between the holy books has led to two quite different civilizations and cultures. Muslims are very defensive of Islamic culture and civilization in a way that Westerners are not defensive of theirs.
Take our leaders. They are reluctant to face up to the fact that we have a huge problem on our hands with Islam in general, and with the rapid growth of Islam in the West in particular. In this reluctance, they are doing us no favours. On the contrary, they are remiss in their duties as guardians of our way of life, as guardians of our Judeo-Christian civilization.
What, for example, are our leaders doing to protect our values and our way of life? Interfaithing will offer no protection; actually, on the contrary, it will probably lead to compromise – the compromise of Westerners. To me it seems like a cop out. It is a smokescreen to enable the top echelons to put profit above principle.
The jihad which is being waged against the West threatens us all. It is not something we can afford to ignore; yet people are ignoring it, largely in the hope that it will go away. It won’t. If anything, it will get worse.
The jihad has many guises. One of the latest is the economic jihad being waged against capitalism. Only this morning, it was reported that there have been calls for Ireland to introduce Shari’ah-compliant finance as a matter of urgency. As a matter of urgency, no less! Why? So that Muslims living and working in Ireland can live their lives according to their faith, without feeling conflicted by the terms and conditions of living in the ‘evil’ capitalist system.
One can but ask oneself one question here: If living under capitalism is so onerous for these Muslims, then why did they come here to live in the first place?
The leaders of finance houses who are working so hard to introduce Shari’ah-compliant financial services and products seem to be oblivious to the fact that Islamic economics is competing in every respect with capitalism. Isn’t it true to say that the interest rate is the keystone of a capitalist economy? Take that keystone away and the whole system will start to fall apart.
In Islam, riba is frowned upon. But let’s get one thing straight: Riba is generally translated as usury, not as the interest rate per se. There is a world of difference between usury, which is the charging of extortionate rates of interest for loans, and the general interest rate which is not to be equated with such extortion. Yet nobody seems to be making any difference between them. The financiers appear to have been hoodwinked into believing that the interest rate is itself frowned upon in Islamic economics. It must be said that one’s definitions in this matter depend on the Islamic scholars one reads: Some scholars frown upon the interest rate altogether, calling it all usury, whilst others take a more liberal approach and make a distinction between a reasonable rate of interest and an extortionate rate.
Whichever is the case, the fact remains that Islamic economics is not compatible with the long-term interests of a capitalist economy. One can but worry about the tentacles of Islam tightening their grip on Western economies. Lest we forget, the old adage, He who pays the piper calls the tune comes to mind. We need not wait to learn that this is indeed true. We can discern the verity of the adage already when we look around us. Take the power of the petrodollar as a case in point. Its power is profound, and it can be felt around the globe.
It is one reason why our leaders and business people are reluctant to speak out. They are overcome by greed and fear: They are greedy to earn back the petrodollars, and they are fearful that if they speak out they will incur the wrath of the Muslims living in the West, and cut off our oil supplies into the bargain.
You see, they do not have the stomach for any form of confrontation. The sad reality is, however, that the West will not survive this onslaught without a confrontation of some kind or other. It’s just not possible. Muslims are too determined to replace our Judeo-Christian civilization with an Islamic one, too determined to replace capitalism with an Islamic economic system.
But by confrontation, I do not necessarily think that we need to go to war (though that cannot, of course, be ruled out in the long-run). But we do need to protect our own values and our own way of life. Alas, this is not happening. Our leaders are giving in at every turn. Appeasement of Muslims both at home and abroad is the norm of the day. It will do nothing for the West except accelarate the demise of our civilization, and accelerate the demise of capitalism, too.
Can’t the people in power see what they are doing? Are bankers and financiers so greedy that they are willing to bring down the West for their own short-term gain? Do they not realize that they are playing with fire? Do they really believe that capitalism and Islamic economics can co-exist? Can they really be that ignorant?
Personally, I think they are not; rather, I think these people are out to get all they can before the house of cards is brought down. Remember the fall of communism? Capitalism will fall equally easily if we do not pay more attention. It’s hard to believe, I know. But the introduction of Shari’ah-compliant finance and other Shari’ah-compliant products is just the start. It is the introduction of Shari’ah law by the back the door. Today it’s banking; tomorrow it will be Shari’ah enshrined in the laws of the land, enshrined in the constitutions of Western countries. How foolish our leaders, bankers and financiers are!
Before 9/11, it would have been hard to imagine that the West could have been so weak and unwilling to fight for a way of life we have come to expect and love. But it all started going wrong after those attacks, because we were too reluctant to state the case against Islam, clearly and unequivocally. The politicians have busied themselves making excuses for Islam and have deceived the public in so doing; the business people and bankers have busied themselves making money from the countries awash with petrodollars. And in so doing they have chosen to turn a blind eye to the financing, by Saudi Arabia, of the propagation of Wahhabi Islam in the West.
So what exactly is Tony Blair going to achieve with his lifetime spent interfaithing? Is he merely going to sell the West farther down the river? And in any case, what are his qualifications for doing this job? What does he know about Islam? And where has he learnt that which he does know?
One thing is for certain: People like Tony Blair are not going to learn the true nature of Islam by sitting in five star hotels in Bethlehem, talking to fabulously rich Muslims from oil-rich countries. To learn about the true nature of Islam one has to mix and talk with people at the grassroots level. The rich are generally Western-educated, indulge in alcohol, spend enormous amounts of money in casinos, live in the lap of luxury, and generally do not adhere strictly to their faith. They are also generally well-travelled; so they are not representative of the ordinary man in the Arab street. Ergo, little can be learnt from them when it comes to the faith of Islam.
Isn’t it high time that we all started taking stock? Isn’t it high time that we woke up to the reality which confronts us? Isn’t it high time that we started to put principle before profit?
©Mark Alexander
All Rights Reserved
Al-Qaeda's terrifying vision of a devastated America in the wake of a nuclear attack
Washington is laid to waste. The Capitol is a blackened, smoking ruin. The White House has been razed. Countless thousands are dead.
This is the apocalyptic scene terrorists hope to create if they ever get their hands on a nuclear bomb.
The computer-generated image below was posted on an Islamic extremists' website yesterday.
It appeared as rumours swept the Internet that the FBI was warning that an Al Qaeda video was about to be released urging militants to use weapons of mass destruction to attack the West.
The information was said to be coming from 'groups that monitor Islamic militant websites'.
The FBI was quick to point out that it had not issued any warning and that the video was not an official Al Qaeda release through its media arm, Al Sahab, but simply an ' amateur' collection of old footage spliced together and posted on the Internet.
The information was said to be coming from 'groups that monitor Islamic militant websites'.
The FBI was quick to point out that it had not issued any warning and that the video was not an official Al Qaeda release through its media arm, Al Sahab, but simply an ' amateur' collection of old footage spliced together and posted on the Internet.
U.S. analysts said a lot of effort had been put into the video - entitled Nuclear Jihad, The Ultimate Terror - with graphics, music, and clips of different leaders and groups.
The same expertise seems to have gone into creating this image of a devastated Washington.
Al Sahab puts out more than 80 'officially sanctioned' videos a year to keep up the propaganda on the West. And the Internet shows how easy it is to stir up militancy. One message with the Washington picture said: 'The next strike's in the heart of America. When? When? When? And How?'
Last night FBI sources said Al Qaeda was desperate to get its hands on a weapon of mass destruction, be it nuclear, chemical, or biological.
So far that is only a dream... or, as this picture suggests, a nightmare.
The Logical Extension Of The Ethnic Nationalist Movement
Rare uncontacted tribe photographed in Amazon
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Amazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.
The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.
"What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilized' ones, treat the world," Jose Carlos Meirelles was quoted as saying in a statement by the Survival International group.
One of the pictures, which can be seen on Survival International's Web site (http://www.survival-international.org), shows two Indian men covered in bright red pigment poised to fire arrows at the aircraft while another Indian looks on.
Another photo shows about 15 Indians near thatched huts, some of them also preparing to fire arrows at the aircraft.
"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct," said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, which supports tribal people around the world.
Yes, and we probably ought to give them a seat at the U.N. Lord knows, they behave as well at the Palestinians.
And, for heaven's sake, someone call Christine Brim. I have a feeling these tribesman don't hate Jews. Maybe, if we ask them the right way, they will even say they support Israel.
Storm Track Appeasement: Dhimmi Mayor Learns Her Lesson
This woman should be thankful that the Islamists are not in power yet in
The Departing Mayor of Kirklees launched a blistering attack on a group of orthodox Muslims for refusing to pose with her in photographs. Her comments came in her departing speech as she handed over mayoral duties to Coun Karam Hussain (Lib Dem, Dewsbury West).
In her tearful speech to the full council and members of the public at
She said: "I attended this event and was horrified to be left on my own in a room full of people that I didn't know. The press wanted to take photographs of the group with the mayor.
"The photographer was told in no uncertain terms that 'we don't have photographs taken with women.'
"That was bad enough but then to stand on my own for a further 15 minutes while photographs were being taken of all the other guests in the room was very upsetting."
That’s the reward of dhimmitude, Mayor of Kirklees.
Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.Economic Jihad Spreads to Ireland; Shari’ah-Compliant Financial Services ‘Should’ Be Made Available to Muslims There as a Matter of Urgency
At this rate, capitalism will be dead in a short time. It took the West years to defeat communism. Western capitalism eventually won the day as it was seen to be superior. Indeed it was and still is superior. Islamic economics is now winning the day, though. And there has been no need of a Cold War, and no need for guns (or swords). All it has taken is intimidation of Westerners by an assertive Muslim population, a sense of subservience to the Gulf Arabs, especially the Saudis, ignorance of the true nature of Islam and its goals, a refusal to admit to the dangers of that faith, appeasement, meekness, and timidity on the part of Westerners who are afraid of confronting the ideology, a loss of belief in our own destiny, and a dogged determination on the part of our leaders and captains of industry NOT to call Islam what it actually is: A political system wrapped up in a deity.
The end of capitalism and liberty, dear readers, is nigh! - ©Mark
THE IRISH TIMES: THERE IS an “urgent need” for sharia-compliant financial services to be made available in Ireland so that Muslims living here do not contravene religious teachings, representatives from Irish financial institutions were told at a seminar on Islamic banking yesterday.
The seminar was held at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI), which is based at Ireland’s largest Sunni mosque in Clonskeagh, Dublin.
“We organised this conference because there is an urgent need for the Muslim community here to have mortgages and other financial services that do not drive them to break their Islamic teachings,” said Ali Selim, a theologian and secretary to Imam Hussein Halawa of the ICCI.
During yesterday’s seminar Imam Halawa outlined the religious tenets of Islam that forbid the payment or receipt of interest, known as riba.
Representatives from the Arab Banking Corporation’s London subsidiary and the Islamic Bank of Britain gave presentations on how the market for Islamic finance has developed in the UK in recent years.
Several high street banks in Britain now offer a variety of sharia-compliant services, including mortgages.
One of the most common types is based on the Islamic principles of “diminishing musharaka” or diminishing ownership. Under this scheme, the customer and bank jointly acquire a property, with the customer’s share usually similar to the normal deposit, but the property is bought in the bank’s name only.
The customer makes monthly payments made up of rent and contributions towards the purchase price over an agreed period of time.
The amount of rent decreases as the customer’s share in the property increases. Ownership is transferred when the customer eventually buys out the bank.
Similar partnerships are available so Muslim business people in the UK can avoid interest repayments.
Mr Selim told the seminar that as Ireland’s Muslim population increased there would be more demand for such services here. Call for Sharia-Compliant Finance Services to Be Available in Ireland >>> By Mary Fitzgerald | May 30, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
The end of capitalism and liberty, dear readers, is nigh! - ©Mark
THE IRISH TIMES: THERE IS an “urgent need” for sharia-compliant financial services to be made available in Ireland so that Muslims living here do not contravene religious teachings, representatives from Irish financial institutions were told at a seminar on Islamic banking yesterday.
The seminar was held at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI), which is based at Ireland’s largest Sunni mosque in Clonskeagh, Dublin.
“We organised this conference because there is an urgent need for the Muslim community here to have mortgages and other financial services that do not drive them to break their Islamic teachings,” said Ali Selim, a theologian and secretary to Imam Hussein Halawa of the ICCI.
During yesterday’s seminar Imam Halawa outlined the religious tenets of Islam that forbid the payment or receipt of interest, known as riba.
Representatives from the Arab Banking Corporation’s London subsidiary and the Islamic Bank of Britain gave presentations on how the market for Islamic finance has developed in the UK in recent years.
Several high street banks in Britain now offer a variety of sharia-compliant services, including mortgages.
One of the most common types is based on the Islamic principles of “diminishing musharaka” or diminishing ownership. Under this scheme, the customer and bank jointly acquire a property, with the customer’s share usually similar to the normal deposit, but the property is bought in the bank’s name only.
The customer makes monthly payments made up of rent and contributions towards the purchase price over an agreed period of time.
The amount of rent decreases as the customer’s share in the property increases. Ownership is transferred when the customer eventually buys out the bank.
Similar partnerships are available so Muslim business people in the UK can avoid interest repayments.
Mr Selim told the seminar that as Ireland’s Muslim population increased there would be more demand for such services here. Call for Sharia-Compliant Finance Services to Be Available in Ireland >>> By Mary Fitzgerald | May 30, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
And the beat goes on...Obama supporter (Zbig !) accuses Jews of 'McCarthyism'
A foreign policy expert consulted by presidential hopeful Barack Obama has accused members of the American Jewish establishment of "McCarthyism" in its attitude towards critics of Israel.
Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski says that the pro-Israel lobby in the US is too powerful, while the slur of anti-Semitism is too readily used whenever its power is called into question.
Calling all jews controlling the banks, empty his accounts via 'clerical error'. Calling the Yahud in charge of media, cut him off.
Presenting a solution for the Middle East, he listed historical compromises that had to be made by Israelis and Palestinians but accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) -- the largest and most influential lobby group -- of obstructing peace efforts.
Indeed, the American jews are stopping HAMAS from turning Gaza into a paradise of peace and love. Aquarius awaits.
Intimidated
He said: "AIPAC has consistently opposed a two-state solution and a lot of members of Congress have been intimidated and I don't think that's healthy."
Walt and Mearsheimer redux...their specific claim: The bottom line is that AIPAC, which is a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress. (page 19 of their original paper)
He added that other country-specific lobbies, such as the Cuban-Americans, the
Armenians and the Irish, had also exerted undue influence in Washington.
Mr Brzezinski, who served under former US president Jimmy Carter, was a key player in the 1978 Camp David Accords and remains an important voice in the US foreign policy establishment. An active author and analyst at 80, he is close enough to Mr Obama that his remarks may feed fears in the American-Jewish community that he will soften America's traditional pro-Israeli stance.
This perception has been created in part by his professed willingness to talk to Iran and partly by other foreign policy associates.
He has been accused before of being "anti-Israel" by some Jewish academics, writers and bloggers after criticising Israel for excessive use of force and unwillingness to compromise.
The holocaust minimizer Abbas just can't wait to compromise..
Last year, censure of him reached new heights when he defended academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. They had criticised the pro-Israel lobby and were accused of questioning the state of Israel's existence.
"It's not unique to the Jewish community -- but there is a McCarthy-ite tendency among some people in the Jewish community," he said, referring to the Republican senator who led the anti-Communist witch hunt in the 1950s.
"They operate not by arguing but by slandering, vilifying, demonising.
Yeah, sort of like our reaction to Ross Barnett, and George Wallace, you idiot. We have identified BIGOTRY, and it PISSES US OFF, just as it should for ANY BIGOTRY since in the end they are all the same.
They very promptly wheel out anti-Semitism.
There is an element of paranoia in this inclination to view any serious attempt at a compromised peace as somehow directed against Israel."
Compelling peace with those whose dedicated 100 year old effort to kill or drive off all non dhimmi jews, who proudly SAY they cannot stop because the quran compels this action is a an activity DIRECTED AGAINST THE ONLY REFUGE FOR THE FEW JEWS ON THE PLANET.
Although Mr Brzezinski is not a formal day-to-day adviser to Obama campaign, he said that he talks to Mr Obama.
Obama claims he had lunch with the guy ONCE.
He wholeheartedly endorses the Illinois senator, lauding him as "head and shoulders" above his opponents. And he says he is the only candidate who understands "what is new and distinctive about our age".
In turn, Mr Obama has praised Mr Brzezinski as "someone I have learned an immense amount from", and "one of our most outstanding scholars and thinkers". They share very similar views on the folly of the Iraq war.
Middle East expert Robert Malley recently quit as an Obama adviser after it emerged he was talking to the militant Palestinian group Hamas as part of his work for the International Crisis Group.
Republican Senator John McCain -- Mr Obama's opponent for the White House once he wraps up the Democratic nomination -- is set to focus on the 46-year-old senator's lack of foreign policy experience and supposed weakness towards enemies.
In recent weeks, Mr Obama has courted the Jewish vote and, on Israel's 60th anniversary, underlined the need for the US to show "unshakeable" support. ( ©Daily Telegraph, London)
- Alex Spillius in Washington
Pakistan: Learn The Koran -- Or Else!
From this source:
Learn-the-Koran-or-else "teaching methodology is not confined to Pakistan:
YouTube link
Blind boy killed by religious teacherPakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has called for an investigation of the boy's death. Considering the justice system in Pakistan, don't hold your breath for charges against the teacher to be pursued any further.
A BLIND seven-year-old student at an Islamic school in eastern Pakistan has died after his teacher punished him for not learning the Koran, police said today.
Muhammad Atif was hung upside down from a ceiling fan and severely beaten by his teacher, Qari Ziauddin, at the seminary or madrassa in Vihari, near Lahore on Thursday, they said.
[...]
The teacher also failed to take the boy to hospital after he fell ill and his condition deteriorated, he said.
Police said a postmortem examination report also confirmed physical torture as the cause of death.
Learn-the-Koran-or-else "teaching methodology is not confined to Pakistan:
YouTube link
MuhammadTube
Have you seen this? It looks like YouTube but it is devoted to issues related to jihad. Check it out: MuhammadTube. It seems to be specifically for Christians, but there are some good resources on there.
Libralyrica
I have just started a new music blog to help you, and me, switch off from the cares of the world, especially the cares caused by Islam. All are welcome to enjoy my selections. The first one is already up. Why don’t you come on over? Libralyrica >>>
Thursday, May 29, 2008
An Old Ghost Is Rising In Belgium: Anti-Semitism And Hatred Of The Jews - Politicians Stage Psycho-drama
On Saturday the 24th of June political 'progressive' activists dressed up in Israeli military uniforms goes through the streets screaming against the people surrounding them and passers by in the city center of Nivelles, a Belgian city situated approximately 30km south from Brussels.
The occasion for this staged psychodrama was Israel's 60 years anniversary to which the organisers wanted to illustrate what their leaflets called the "expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 when Israel was created." and what they called the "disposition of the Palestinian people".
The activists who were dressed up like Israeli soldiers are screaming "You are on our land now, allez, allez, allez, hurry up, on to the trucks", "This is our place" while they are swinging their truncheons and harrassing other activists dressed up as Palestinians and passers by, the children present who are witnessing the whole psychodrama are terrified, some of the activist who are penned around dressed as Palestinians are playing along "We are scared, I got my baby in my apartment" while the 'soldier' is screaming "Move on, move on, hurry up"and to others "Down on your knees" and they are penned towards a stand with the United Nation's UNWRA written on it and ' The Bethlehem refugee camp'.
Terese Snoy, MP from the Ecolo (Greens) told the crowd.
"I was dumbfunded to witness the pressure of what happened in the municipal of Nivelles. First someone had tried to block the tractor going through the street [pedestrian] and we had to do the second tour on foot. I suppose this illustrates the capacity of the political class which unfortunately will have to submit under the pressure from certain Jewish groups. I imagine this is going on at all level. And maybe this the reason for Belgium's weak positions"
women, who are raped, when I see maltreated men and freedoms ridiculed. During the twelve years and half I was minister, I left no stone unturned so that the atrocities against the Jews during WWII be remembered and not forgotten. I also ask that one have the same commitment, the same determination to make that the voice of those who suffer today is heard and to avoid banalization. I am determined to fight against all exclusions, all nazisms, all fascisms wherever they are.”
The video have shocked the Jewish community in Belgium and with good reason, it paints a complete false picture of Israel and simplifies the whole Israeli - Palestinian issue, comparing Israel to Nazis is by definition Anti-Semitism - Staging such a psychodrama using the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary leaves more than just a bad taste in the mouth and revokes the spectre of 1938 in 2008 - Telling bystanders that they [the organisers of the psychodrama] had been under pressure and harrassed from 'certain Jewish groups' is yet again awakening an other old ghost from Europe's Nazi past that of the' Zionist Occupied Governments' and Hitler's 'Jugentum'.
The Israeli Embassy has got this to say to the European Jewish Press
"This demonstration, which trivializes and simplifies the Mideast situation, and during which the organizers didn’t not hesitate to manipulate the public, presented a negative and untrue image of Israel," the Israeli embassy deplored Wednesday in a statement.
"Under cover of criticism and free expression, certain associations and certain political representatives make every effort since several years to spread shameful and intolerable confusion," the embassy said.
Andre Flahaut who you can watch on the YouTube making his speech later denied he had made any Anti-Jewish comments.
"Psychodrame Nakba" à Nivelles
Transcript of Andre Flahaut's speech:
Andre Flahaut:
"Bonjour à tous et tout d'abord effectivement je suis conseiller communal de cette ville et je
suis honteux pour cette ville et je suis honteux de ma ville."
The occasion for this staged psychodrama was Israel's 60 years anniversary to which the organisers wanted to illustrate what their leaflets called the "expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 when Israel was created." and what they called the "disposition of the Palestinian people".
The activists who were dressed up like Israeli soldiers are screaming "You are on our land now, allez, allez, allez, hurry up, on to the trucks", "This is our place" while they are swinging their truncheons and harrassing other activists dressed up as Palestinians and passers by, the children present who are witnessing the whole psychodrama are terrified, some of the activist who are penned around dressed as Palestinians are playing along "We are scared, I got my baby in my apartment" while the 'soldier' is screaming "Move on, move on, hurry up"and to others "Down on your knees" and they are penned towards a stand with the United Nation's UNWRA written on it and ' The Bethlehem refugee camp'.
Terese Snoy, MP from the Ecolo (Greens) told the crowd.
"I was dumbfunded to witness the pressure of what happened in the municipal of Nivelles. First someone had tried to block the tractor going through the street [pedestrian] and we had to do the second tour on foot. I suppose this illustrates the capacity of the political class which unfortunately will have to submit under the pressure from certain Jewish groups. I imagine this is going on at all level. And maybe this the reason for Belgium's weak positions"
Former Belgian defense minister André Flahaut, a Socialist MP city councillor in Nivelles, compared Israel to a Nazi state.
He starts declaring he is ashamed of the town and he is ashamed of his life and continues:“Like any normal person, I am revolted when I see children suffering, when I see maltreated
women, who are raped, when I see maltreated men and freedoms ridiculed. During the twelve years and half I was minister, I left no stone unturned so that the atrocities against the Jews during WWII be remembered and not forgotten. I also ask that one have the same commitment, the same determination to make that the voice of those who suffer today is heard and to avoid banalization. I am determined to fight against all exclusions, all nazisms, all fascisms wherever they are.”The video have shocked the Jewish community in Belgium and with good reason, it paints a complete false picture of Israel and simplifies the whole Israeli - Palestinian issue, comparing Israel to Nazis is by definition Anti-Semitism - Staging such a psychodrama using the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary leaves more than just a bad taste in the mouth and revokes the spectre of 1938 in 2008 - Telling bystanders that they [the organisers of the psychodrama] had been under pressure and harrassed from 'certain Jewish groups' is yet again awakening an other old ghost from Europe's Nazi past that of the' Zionist Occupied Governments' and Hitler's 'Jugentum'.
The Israeli Embassy has got this to say to the European Jewish Press
"This demonstration, which trivializes and simplifies the Mideast situation, and during which the organizers didn’t not hesitate to manipulate the public, presented a negative and untrue image of Israel," the Israeli embassy deplored Wednesday in a statement.
"Under cover of criticism and free expression, certain associations and certain political representatives make every effort since several years to spread shameful and intolerable confusion," the embassy said.
"By acting this way, these associations are taking an active part in importing a regional conflict in the streets of Belgium and are feeding anti-Semitism."
The embassy called on the Belgian authorities "for more vigilance in the face of such outbursts which are inciting to hatred."
Andre Flahaut who you can watch on the YouTube making his speech later denied he had made any Anti-Jewish comments.
"Psychodrame Nakba" à Nivelles
Transcript of Andre Flahaut's speech:
Andre Flahaut:
"Bonjour à tous et tout d'abord effectivement je suis conseiller communal de cette ville et je
suis honteux pour cette ville et je suis honteux de ma ville."
"Parce que lorsque l'on interdit une manifestation ou une expression, je considère ça comme une dérive dangereuse."
"Je suis, comme toute personne normalement constituée, révolté lorsque je vois des enfants souffrir, lorsque je vois des femmes maltraitées, violées, lorsque je vois des hommes maltraités, des libertés bafouées."
"Pendant les douze ans et demi où j'ai été ministre, j'ai mis tout en œuvre aussi pour que l'on n'oublie pas et qu'on se souvienne des atrocités dont le peuple juif a été victime pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale."
"On a eu cet engagement et donc je demande aussi que l'on aie le même engagement, la même détermination, la même volonté pour faire entendre la voix de celles et de ceux qui aujourd'hui souffrent, pour faire en sorte que l'on évite la banalisation."
"Je suis déterminé à lutter contre toutes les exclusions, tous les nazismes, tous les fascismes où qu'ils se trouvent et au moment où ils se présentent."
"Voilà, c'est pour ça que je suis ici"
More: European Jewish press
The Real Nakba: May 29, Black Tuesday, the Last Day of the World
If you want to know what our future looks like, if we allow Islam to become dominant, then read this...
A very important post from Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch:
Today marks the anniversary of the real Nakba, or perhaps more precisely the καταστροφή -- the Catastrophe: on this day in 1453, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II entered Constantinople, marking the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire.
If anything deserves to be called an occupation, and a nakba, it is this, although it has, like so many other bloody conquests in human history, been legitimized by time. Still, if the descendants of the Christian inhabitants of Constantinople and Anatolia were to demand, and receive, a right of return, rapidly-Islamizing Turkey would look vastly different from how it looks now.
On this day in 1453, the conquerers were extraordinarily brutal. Historian Steven Runciman notes that the Muslim soldiers "slew everyone that they met in the streets, men, women, and children without discrimination. The blood ran in rivers down the steep streets from the heights of Petra toward the Golden Horn. But soon the lust for slaughter was assuaged. The soldiers realized that captives and precious objects would bring them greater profit." (The Fall of Constantinople 1453, Cambridge University Press, 1965, p. 145.)
Some jihadists "made for the small but splendid churches by the walls, Saint George by the Charisian Gate, Saint John in Petra, and the lovely church of the monastery of the Holy Saviour in Chora, to strip them of their stores of plate and their vestments and everything else that could be torn from them. In the Chora they left the mosaics and frescoes, but they destroyed the icon of the Mother of God, the Hodigitria, the holiest picture in all Byzantium, painted, so men said, by Saint Luke himself. It had been taken there from its own church beside the Palace at the beginning of the siege, that its beneficient presence might be at hand to inspire the defenders on the walls. It was taken from its setting and hacked into four pieces." (P. 146.)
The jihadists also entered the Hagia Sophia, which for nearly a thousand years had been the grandest church in Christendom. The faithful had gathered within its hallowed walls to pray during the city’s last agony. The Muslims, according to Runciman, halted the celebration of Orthros (morning prayer); the priests, according to legend, took the sacred vessels and disappeared into the cathedral’s eastern wall, through which they shall return to complete the divine service one day. Muslim men then killed the elderly and weak and led the rest off into slavery.
Once the Muslims had thoroughly subdued Constantinople, they set out to Islamize it.
According to the Muslim chronicler Hoca Sa’deddin, tutor of the sixteenth-century Sultans Murad III and Mehmed III, "churches which were within the city were emptied of their vile idols and cleansed from the filthy and idolatrous impurities and by the defacement of their images and the erection of Islamic prayer niches and pulpits many monasteries and chapels became the envy of the gardens of Paradise."
It has come to be known as Black Tuesday, the Last Day of the World. Tuesday has been regarded as unlucky by superstitious Greeks ever since. But they're about the only ones who remember.
The world has forgotten what happened on Black Tuesday, and on so many other days like it from India to Spain, and persists in the fantasy that Islam does not contain an imperialist impulse and that Muslims can be admitted without limit into Western countries without any attempt to determine how many would like ultimately to subjugate and Islamize their new countries, the way their forefathers did to Constantinople so long ago.
Oh, and there are a few others who remember as well. Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, said this on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008: "We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once..." Hamas MP and Islamic cleric Yunis Al-Astal said this, also on Al-Aqsa TV, on April 11, 2008: "Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad."
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi remembers also. In writing about "signs of the victory of Islam," he referred to a hadith: "The Prophet Muhammad was asked: 'What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?' He answered: 'The city of Hirqil [i.e. the Byzantine emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first' - that is, Constantinople… Romiyya is the city called today 'Rome,' the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered]. This means that Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice - once from the South, from Andalusia, and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on the door of Athens."
Mehmet the Conqueror was motivated by exactly the same religious ideology that motivates the Islamic warriors of the contemporary era. Historian Halil Inalcik says of the Ottomans that their "culture was dominated by the Islamic conception of Holy War or ghaza." Ghaza refers to warfare to expand the land under the hegemony of Islam -- and thus it is not identical to jihad, but is one of the chief means of jihad.
Inalcik continues: "By God's command the ghaza had to be fought against the infidels' dominions, dar al-harb (the abode of war), ceaselessly and relentlessly until they submitted." (The Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1A, Cambridge University Press, 1970, p. 269)
And Mehmet himself explained as he argued for the necessity of conquering Constantinople: "The ghaza is our basic duty, as it was in the case of our fathers." (The Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1A, p. 295)
He was pursuing offensive jihad against the infidels, in accord with the mandates of the Qur'an and Sunnah. If anything today's jihadists are less radical than he was: because there is no caliphate today, they do not consider themselves authorized to wage offensive jihad, since that is the prerogative of the caliph only. They characterize all their jihad activity as defensive.
May 29, Black Tuesday, the Last Day of the World, the true Nakba: today should be a day for all those threatened by Islamic jihad supremacism to redouble our efforts to resist, so that more such catastrophes may never again destroy the lives of free people.
A very important post from Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch:
Today marks the anniversary of the real Nakba, or perhaps more precisely the καταστροφή -- the Catastrophe: on this day in 1453, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II entered Constantinople, marking the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire.
If anything deserves to be called an occupation, and a nakba, it is this, although it has, like so many other bloody conquests in human history, been legitimized by time. Still, if the descendants of the Christian inhabitants of Constantinople and Anatolia were to demand, and receive, a right of return, rapidly-Islamizing Turkey would look vastly different from how it looks now.
On this day in 1453, the conquerers were extraordinarily brutal. Historian Steven Runciman notes that the Muslim soldiers "slew everyone that they met in the streets, men, women, and children without discrimination. The blood ran in rivers down the steep streets from the heights of Petra toward the Golden Horn. But soon the lust for slaughter was assuaged. The soldiers realized that captives and precious objects would bring them greater profit." (The Fall of Constantinople 1453, Cambridge University Press, 1965, p. 145.)
Some jihadists "made for the small but splendid churches by the walls, Saint George by the Charisian Gate, Saint John in Petra, and the lovely church of the monastery of the Holy Saviour in Chora, to strip them of their stores of plate and their vestments and everything else that could be torn from them. In the Chora they left the mosaics and frescoes, but they destroyed the icon of the Mother of God, the Hodigitria, the holiest picture in all Byzantium, painted, so men said, by Saint Luke himself. It had been taken there from its own church beside the Palace at the beginning of the siege, that its beneficient presence might be at hand to inspire the defenders on the walls. It was taken from its setting and hacked into four pieces." (P. 146.)
The jihadists also entered the Hagia Sophia, which for nearly a thousand years had been the grandest church in Christendom. The faithful had gathered within its hallowed walls to pray during the city’s last agony. The Muslims, according to Runciman, halted the celebration of Orthros (morning prayer); the priests, according to legend, took the sacred vessels and disappeared into the cathedral’s eastern wall, through which they shall return to complete the divine service one day. Muslim men then killed the elderly and weak and led the rest off into slavery.
Once the Muslims had thoroughly subdued Constantinople, they set out to Islamize it.
According to the Muslim chronicler Hoca Sa’deddin, tutor of the sixteenth-century Sultans Murad III and Mehmed III, "churches which were within the city were emptied of their vile idols and cleansed from the filthy and idolatrous impurities and by the defacement of their images and the erection of Islamic prayer niches and pulpits many monasteries and chapels became the envy of the gardens of Paradise."
It has come to be known as Black Tuesday, the Last Day of the World. Tuesday has been regarded as unlucky by superstitious Greeks ever since. But they're about the only ones who remember.
The world has forgotten what happened on Black Tuesday, and on so many other days like it from India to Spain, and persists in the fantasy that Islam does not contain an imperialist impulse and that Muslims can be admitted without limit into Western countries without any attempt to determine how many would like ultimately to subjugate and Islamize their new countries, the way their forefathers did to Constantinople so long ago.
Oh, and there are a few others who remember as well. Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, said this on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008: "We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once..." Hamas MP and Islamic cleric Yunis Al-Astal said this, also on Al-Aqsa TV, on April 11, 2008: "Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad."
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi remembers also. In writing about "signs of the victory of Islam," he referred to a hadith: "The Prophet Muhammad was asked: 'What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?' He answered: 'The city of Hirqil [i.e. the Byzantine emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first' - that is, Constantinople… Romiyya is the city called today 'Rome,' the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered]. This means that Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice - once from the South, from Andalusia, and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on the door of Athens."
Mehmet the Conqueror was motivated by exactly the same religious ideology that motivates the Islamic warriors of the contemporary era. Historian Halil Inalcik says of the Ottomans that their "culture was dominated by the Islamic conception of Holy War or ghaza." Ghaza refers to warfare to expand the land under the hegemony of Islam -- and thus it is not identical to jihad, but is one of the chief means of jihad.
Inalcik continues: "By God's command the ghaza had to be fought against the infidels' dominions, dar al-harb (the abode of war), ceaselessly and relentlessly until they submitted." (The Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1A, Cambridge University Press, 1970, p. 269)
And Mehmet himself explained as he argued for the necessity of conquering Constantinople: "The ghaza is our basic duty, as it was in the case of our fathers." (The Cambridge History of Islam, Volume 1A, p. 295)
He was pursuing offensive jihad against the infidels, in accord with the mandates of the Qur'an and Sunnah. If anything today's jihadists are less radical than he was: because there is no caliphate today, they do not consider themselves authorized to wage offensive jihad, since that is the prerogative of the caliph only. They characterize all their jihad activity as defensive.
May 29, Black Tuesday, the Last Day of the World, the true Nakba: today should be a day for all those threatened by Islamic jihad supremacism to redouble our efforts to resist, so that more such catastrophes may never again destroy the lives of free people.
Weiner Wants A Huma?!? Somehow, I Doubt It
Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner has come out of the closet and admitted he is "dating" Hilary's girlfriend Huma Abedin.
It should come as no surprise that Weiner (who is a very attractive man) is dating an attracitve young lady like Huma, right?
Yeah, right.
Somehow, I'm not buying it.
Anthony Weiner, a likely 2009 mayoral candidate, is pouring his heart into Hillary Clinton's White House bid - literally.
Weiner, whose district includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn, finally 'fessed that he is romancing Clinton's glamorous "body woman," Huma Abedin.
Asked by The Associated Press about all the time he's spending on the road campaigning for Clinton, the 43-year-old bachelor said, "It's largely because I'm dating Huma."
The whispers have been around for months, but until yesterday Weiner ducked questions about Abedin, saying his personal life was off limits.
Though she posed recently for a glamorous photo spread in Vogue, Abedin, 32, is famously press-shy.
A comment named Pyrrus, at the Daily News website, nailed the story:
I don't care whether or not Wiener is gay and she's his "beard." I also don't care if he's a Jew & she's a Muslim. What I want to know is who is PAYING for him to chase Ms. Abedin around the country. Is it the Clinton campaign (that's already $20M in debt) or is it his congressional account ... which translates to YOU & ME?
A Call For Slogans In Support Of Mark Steyn
The Covenant Zone bloggers will be demonstrating in support of Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine, and against the ludicrous operation of "human rights" law in this country, when Mark's hearing in front of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal kicks off, next Monday, June 2. We will meet at 8 AM in front of the Provincial Court House at 800 Hornby where, according to the BCHRT website, the hearing will take place.
We welcome all bloggers, readers, and informed and outraged citizens to join us. (Also: we will be discussing this tomorrow at our regular Thursday evening meeting in the atrium of the Vancouver Public Library, central branch, 7-9 pm, in front of Blenz Coffee - look for the blue scarves.)
Now since many people interested in this "trial" are not in the Vancouver area, we thought we would offer people a way of participating in our demonstration. We intend to carry signs and hand out leaflets.
The problem we have is how to communicate the current "human rights" travesty in some catchy phrases or slogans. This is an invitation to send us ideas. We want slogans and/or aphorisms or short statements that can appeal to ordinary citizens, to communicate something of the evil that will be unfolding in the court house to those who may not know what is going on. We want phrases that will be memorable, perhaps even one day historical.
Now of course we will only be communicating slogans with which we agree, for which we can take responsibility. Anyway, if you have a good idea, why not let us know. If we get suggestions, we'll put them in a later blog post.
My own take on what is happening to Mark Steyn and Maclean's is that they are being held up as (potential) sacrificial victims or scapegoats, in an attempt to sustain a post-national and imperialistic ideology, a "human rights" world view in which the potential scapegoat is anyone who makes too much noise about the direction of history, and about the freedom of citizens in once self-ruling nations to try and shape history in the cause of their shared freedom.
For the "human rights" crowd, Western freedom has become too risky, a potential source of global violence; and thus the "human rights" advocates seek to keep it under reigns. More generally, the "human rights" bureaucrats have come to the view that the normal in Western society is always a potential source of violence towards those they certify as marginal groups exposed to victimization by the normal.
Theirs is essentially a response to the Holocaust and the Nazis who corrupted the normal and all the professions in Germany to their violent ends. And yet, the post-Nazi "human rights" world view has in turn become an ideology that requires its own parade of victims. Somehow it has missed some key element to a proper understanding of the history of victimization and antisemitism. It has become what it purports to fight.
The "human rights" worldview is thus rightly the target of humourists like Steyn. Mark Steyn, as we all know, is something of an icon for a post-9/11 world, calling on Westerners and all free citizens to take ownership again of their nations, to fight against post-national and anti-national bureaucratic elites who, in institutions like the UN, the EU, the global media, the academy, and the Canadian "human rights" commissions take the view that the protection of the modern global order requires, among other things, all kinds of regulations against risky language, language that might "victimize" and inflame those at odds with modern civilization.
As a kind of appeasement or paying of blackmail the "human rights" world view is one where Western left-liberal opinion implicitly allies with those opposed to modern freedoms and feeds the resentful with victims, like Mark Steyn, or any icon of the normal, successful, wealthy, corporate, American, Israeli, Christian, etc., in a vain attempt to keep the peace.
They also ignore many of the gross human rights violations in non-Western countries, and make excuses for the persecution of women, Christians, gays, etc., according to a nihilistic code of cultural relativism.
Of course, no cult of human sacrifice - and quite frankly that is precisely what I take our "human rights" commisssions to have become - is ever satisfied: it always needs more victims.
Thus "We are all Mark Steyn." We individuals, we Canadian (and other nations') citizens who enjoy freedom and want the right to publish and listen to any and all ideas as we see fit, with only the proper limits of civil and criminal law, are all potential victims of the falsely-named "human rights" world view. "I am Mark Steyn" is our unifying slogan, the title for our handout. Let us know what we might put under that.
Thanks to all the Mark Steyns out there.
Some proposed slogans:
Any idea offends somebody.
Free speech shouldn't cost you.
You will be silenced next. More speech, not less.
All totalitarianisms limit free speech.
Offending someone is not a crime.
Talk isn't cheap anymore.
The truth hurts.
Steyn's speech informs. Yours is useless...
Storm Track Disinformation: US Moves Up the Global Peace Index
First the bad news. In 2007, the United Sates ranked as one of the worse war-mongering countries in the world. At least according to the Global Peace Index.Now the good news. We were a little less war-mongering in 2008. Don’t ask me why but let’s look at the peace loons’ results.
Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.Attn: Olmert & mayor of Sderot - We win on this one, BIG TIME - Army C-RAM Intercepts 100th Mortar Bomb in Iraq
What took'em so long? I wonder if the people living in Ashkelon and Sderot are happy with an 'evaluation' at length?The U.S. Army announced its counter mortar weapon systems successfully intercepted 100 enemy fired mortar bombs protecting multi-national Corps Iraq assets. The Centurion systems, a ground based version of the 20mm Naval Phalanx point defense weapon was declared initial operational capable in July 2005. It scored its first intercept in March 2006. Since then, C-RAM system deployed in theater provided over 1,500 localized warnings, allowing troops time to take protective cover.Systems are currently developed as an Integrated Base Defense System of Systems, protecting a training base, combat training centers and selected U.S. and Coalition forward operating bases in Iraq. In each deployment the capabilities of C-RAM are tailored specifically to the location.
"Defeating the RAM threat is not accomplished by any one piece of equipment, tactic, organizational or individual effort, but by a comprehensive effort with many contributing sources," said C-RAM Program director, Michael J. Van Rassen. He explains that C-RAM effects are not necessarily only kinetic. In addition to the kinetic effect (target kill) the system proved valuable when its data could enhance situational awareness, and, with timely distribution of data, has made it possible for soldiers to kill or capture enemy units firing on coalition forces. The system also proved its capability to integrate with airspace management as it automatically aborted intercepts to preclude endangering friendly aircraft from rounds fired by C-RAM's intercept system. The current C-RAM system comprises existing field artillery and air defense sensors, a commercial industry produced warning system, and the Phalanx guns. The system is tied to various response systems via U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and Army battle command systems.
The C-RAM program was initiated at the request of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff in May 2004. C-RAM has been on a rapid development path, conducting its proof of principle test in November 2004 which was followed by a series of spiral developments, operational demonstrations, and staged deployments beginning in 2005.
After initially rejecting the Centurion as a possible countermeasure that could defeat rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel Ministry of Defense reassessed its position and has ordered one system for evaluation in country. According to initial plans, several systems would be required to protect an area the size of the city of Sderot, which suffers daily Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza strip for the past seven years.
After all you have seen this here BEFORE
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